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The Betsy

1978, Movie, R, 120 mins

The Betsy: Review

How can you go wrong with the four corners of the American Dream--sex, power, money, and automobiles? Harold Robbins' book, a trashy gloss of the automobile industry, was wall-to-wall raunch, but this picture goes the other way: Daniel Petrie, a classy director, applies an unfortunate patina of taste. A patriarchal auto mogul (Laurence Olivier) is about to unveil the Betsy, a car named after his daughter. It's a gem of an auto, and therein lies the problem. With no built-in obsolescence, it's an albatross--not unlike the indestructible fabric in THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT that threatened to put an end to the textile industry. Robert Duvall plays Olivier's grandson (the family's a lot like the Fords: Edsel, the son of Henry, Sr., died young, and his grandson took over the corporation). Jane Alexander is Duvall's wife, and Ross is Olivier's lover and his daughter-in-law (married to Rudd). The book was great trash; the movie is merely mediocre trash.